There is no hiding the sense of uncertainty. "If I was playing Leicester now, I'd say: 'Go out and blow them away in the first 20 minutes and you've got a good chance of winning,'" said Ben Kay, one of the experienced players upon whom Leicester are relying to save their season this afternoon. The World Cup-winning lock has been at the club almost nine years and has never known anything like it. He is sitting outdoors on a table that has seen better days and, not unlike the team, may struggle to last the month. It is not an obviously Churchillian declaration of intent.

Yet Kay is simply voicing what everyone around Welford Road already knows. Leicester, by their high standards, have been jogging through quicksand, publicly accepting they stand no chance of retaining the domestic title they won so convincingly at Gloucester's expense last year. Defeat by Harlequins today will even necessitate a fortnight's wait to find out if they have qualified for next season's Heineken Cup. A failure to secure a passport into Europe's premier club competition for the first time would unquestionably be the worst embarrassment the club have suffered in the professional era.

Trickier still is that Quins are under the control of Dean Richards, the former Leicester legend who knows better than anyone how Marcelo Loffreda and Richard Cockerill feel today. "I'm sure he'll be rubbing his hands," sighs Kay, a view shared by Cockerill, Loffreda's forwards coach, who suspects Richards would relish depriving Leicester of a top-five place. "Given his history here, I'm sure Dean would love to be the person to do that. He's a competitive guy and he didn't leave here on particularly great terms."

What goes around comes around. It is now Leicester's task to stay one jump ahead of someone who knows them rather better than Loffreda. The players are honest enough to agree with Cockerill - "If I was to say we were a really good side and have just been unlucky, I'd be lying" - that one of Europe's leading clubs can blame no one else for their predicament. Kay, with 58 England caps to his name, is in no mood to airbrush the Tigers' run of six defeats in their last nine league games. "Once the rot starts you can get into a losing habit. Perhaps we've been a little bit scared of losing rather than going out to win games. As soon as we take away that fear of losing we actually start playing pretty well."

There are mitigating factors. As Kay points out, the league is "a lot harder" than it used to be. No longer is it possible to beat teams in the bottom half without breaking sweat. The World Cup and untimely injuries have had an effect, not to mention Loffreda's vain struggle to adjust to his new environment. Leicester will come again but, right now, their self-belief has gone awol. "That's the hardest thing about coaching," suggests Kay. "If the players aren't performing and you think you've done everything you can, what do you do next? The really good sides are capable of winning when they're playing badly and grind out a victory regardless of circumstances. We used to go out expecting to win games. We need to rediscover a bit of the arrogance we once had."

It will be tough. Being strapped to an emotional bungee, as Kay has been since last August, makes for a long season. England's dependable lineout man was the only squad member to play every minute of the World Cup campaign, from the depths of the Springbok pool defeat to the frustrating finale. As Martin Johnson's long-time second-row partner he has also been torn between sympathy for Brian Ashton and his belief that England now have the ideal man in charge.

"I wasn't happy with the way the RFU handled Brian's situation but I don't think there could be anyone better for that role [than Johnson]. I'm not blowing smoke up his arse because I want something from him, I just want England to do well. I feel very sorry for Brian. But for Johnno second place isn't good enough and that's how, as Englishmen, we should be thinking."

Nor, with John Wells and Graham Rowntree involved, has the Leicester "mafia" ever been more powerful. But the 32-year-old Kay knows Johnson well enough not to anticipate preferential treatment. "He just wants the best people and he's also in a rare position. I can't think of another new coach whom no one has got any dirt on. Even the guys who hated him as a player would have given their right arms to have him on their team." So has Kay been told whether he is going on next month's tour to New Zealand? Not yet, apparently. "He's spoken to me and gauged my interest in going or whether I might be better having a rest. I said I wanted to go but said I'd leave it up to him. People you've played with know you inside out."

But England's squad, to be announced on Tuesday, can wait for now. So, too, can the world of advertising and marketing into which he has been dipping his toes. Kay has no imminent plans to retire and is not keen on playing in the European Challenge Cup next year. "It's not through a lack of trying but the players haven't been performing to the level required when you pull on a Leicester shirt and, in some respects, that goes for England as well. The position the club are in at the moment is not acceptable and it's a bitter pill to swallow. It's up to the senior guys to ensure heads don't go down because, if that happens, there's no way back."